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El Perro del Mar
From the Valley to the Stars
Memphis Industries
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Article
written by Adam W
Mar 25, 2008.
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As any good doctor will tell you, being happy is a great deal better than being sad and, where possible, we should always try and accentuate the positive things in our lives rather than dwell on the negative. Unfortunately this logic doesn’t always apply to our musical loves, as some people just make misery so damn appealing. El Perro del Mar (aka Sarah Assbring) is one of those folk, and her last full length was a wonderful collection of tear-soaked musings on loneliness, heartache and simply feeling, and being treated like, downright shit. All of this was clothed in a delightfully sad backdrop of 60’s girl swing with horns, strings and harmonies combining to make a very solid musical statement indeed.
On this, her 2nd album proper, she has made a couple of notable artistic shifts. Firstly, this collection contains more of a positive spin on things as she celebrates the sweeter things in life and, as reflected in the album title, takes the muse of the subject of that Oscar Wilde quote in looking up at the stars from the gutter. Secondly, whilst the nods to 60’s girly pop are still there, she has made the music more of a downbeat and atmospheric affair by going for a more textured Phil Spector-ish approach to layering but in very restrained fashion. Unfortunately this combination has nowhere near the same impact as her previous musical blueprint, meaning we are left with an album which is undoubtedly pretty in places but lacking in oomph and intrigue.
There are several artists (Cat Power for instance) who do this kind of downbeat and subtlely melodic music very well, but it seems that El Perro del Mar is not quite able to pull it off. This is a very pleasant listen, and the dreamy arrangements and gloomy vocals do indeed contain moments of solid beauty. It’s just that over a whole album (and 16 tracks thereof) the experience becomes rather inconsequential and unnoticeable, which is made more of a let down than it should be as we know that this lady is capable of producing some truly inspired and arresting music. Sometimes, it seems, the doctor just isn’t always right…
Untitled Document
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